Torah Portion:	Vayigash
Synagogue:	MHC Toorak (Traditional, Orthodox)
Walking time from home:	55 minutes
Reason for going:	Long walk, sit down kiddush
Kiddush:	Small but lots of variety

As I’ve mentioned before, Melbourne has over 60 synagogues. Some are grand, large, purpose-built structures, whilst others are housed in former private homes, or small buildings with little sign from the outside that they are shules. Melbourne Hebrew Congregation (known colloquially as Toorak Shule) is very much in the former category. It is in fact probably the grandest of all the synagogues in town, sitting on its own block just off a main road, and with a giant cupola, visible from all angles. It is so grand and old that St Kilda Shule was actually modelled on it.

Toorak Shule is also probably the first shule that I ever remember going to as a five-year-old. It was then and is still now the site of many weddings, and I recall being a tiny pageboy and being overwhelmed by the grandeur of the place. Apparently even Lord Jonathan Sacks, as Chief Rabbi on his first visit to the shule in the 1990s was also overwhelmed, so I guess I am in good company.

I went to Toorak shule on this occasion because I wanted a long walk on the longest Shabbat of the year (ie: latest finishing time) and to get to Toorak shule from my place, there is a lovely park, through which I walked slowly on the way home. On top of that, there was a small sit down kiddush. Plus, I went to Toorak shule on the first day of Rosh Hashana, and since then I’ve been meaning to come back.

On Rosh Hashana, Dudu Fisher – the internationally acclaimed cantor and musical theatre star – was the Chazan, and I wanted to see him. I wasn’t disappointed by that performance. Part of the reason why he was brought out was because the synagogue is currently undergoing a bit of a renaissance. It is in fact Melbourne’s oldest shule – founded in 1841 – but since the 1980s at least, has not always been a flourishing congregation. In the least year or so, a young, dynamic rabbi has been appointed. He is also the founder of C-Care (https://www.ccare.org.au/), a food preparation and delivery organisation for which I and many others volunteer, and I guess since he has been so successful in running and innovating that organisation, they want him to do the same with the shule.

On this occasion, being the middle of the summer holidays and New Years Eve, there was only less than 20 people in total, so rather than gather in the large and imposing sanctuary, our service was in the much smaller Herscu synagogue at the back, but it was still somewhat imposing. All around the room are plaques marking donations, but all of them are in pounds and guineas. Considering Australia changed to decimal currency in 1966, that means most of these donations are probably from the 1950s or even earlier, meaning that it is unlikely that any of the people are still alive. On top of that, when we went to the boardroom for kiddush, there are photos and letters on the wall of presidents of the shule going back to the 1840s, and letters from King George VI and Australian Governors General going back to the early 1900s. It really felt like we were surrounded by history and a very rich past.

However, in some way for me it also felt very contemporary when the rabbi talked about this week’s portion, because during the week I went to see ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’, which is currently playing in Melbourne. It is exactly about the episodes in this week’s portion and the surrounding ones, and though the show was originally written in the late 1960s and updated in the 80s and 90s, this performance feels very modern and current (at one point the narrator takes a photo of a scene with a mobile phone). It was the first time I saw the show, so I felt like I understood the plight of Joseph and his brothers in a new way, and one that I could relate to, even more so after hearing the rabbi talk about some of the episodes of the same story. Toorak shule will always feel grand to me, and I’m glad I went there on this week, when the stories of the past also felt so grand.